Vacancies rise to record

UNEMPLOYMENT is set to drop more using the quantity of job openings climbing to record levels, fuelling speculation of another interest rise.

National job openings in the 90 days to August rose 2.9 percent, seasonally modified, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics immigration and naturalization book .

Job openings rose by 11.9 percent within the year to August.

CommSec stocks economist Martin Arnold said with job openings now at a high, the unemployment rate was set to drop below 4 per cent - from its present 4.3 per cent - as bosses were encouraged by business conditions to get more staff.

"The Australian economy is recording strong growth and business conditions are essentially just like they get," he explained.

The potency of the economy led a frustrated John Howard to express the public was a failure to provide the federal government credit for economic management.

"I think there is a view in the neighborhood... Probably a significant amount that, for somehow or yet another, our economic strength and our economic stability and progress is happening naturally, that the economy is on autopilot," the Prime Minister told a forum at Ocean Grove on the Victorian coast yesterday.

He explained this was one of the reasons why the government was performing so poorly in the public opinion polls: "I think people are beginning to take the Australian economy for granted."

Seasonally-adjusted work vacancies totalled 172,700 within the three months to August.

Mr Arnold said there were fewer than three unemployed people for every empty job, the lowest level on record.

Business services is among the strongest growth areas, with 45,200 vacancies, 28.4 % higher than a year-ago.

The variety of positions vacant in the communications industry has more than doubled to 2800 in the same time.

There was strong demand for labour in the retail trade, building and transportation sectors.

Areas that appear to be less desperate for staff include welcome, entertainment and personal ser-vices.

The public sector is continuing to expand, with the quantity of vacant jobs 11.8 per cent more than a year ago like i said .

In the year to August, job openings within the increase state of Western Australia were up by 31.8 per cent, unadjusted, followed by the ACT, that was up 31 per cent.

Just Queensland had a decline, with year-on-year openings down 3.3 %.

Matthew Johnson, the senior economist at specialist ICAP, said the rise in jobs vacancies should provide employment growth in excess of 2 %.

"This means that unemployment will probably drop lower, and that every one in the Reserve Bank down will continue to worry about wage-push inflation," he said.

Low unemployment and large job openings is a conventional recipe for inflation, with a limit to exactly how many positions might be filled.

There's, to date, been no proof of wage inflation, with the average price of labour rising largely in line with prices in-the economy. Another inflation figures are published on October 24.

UBS key economist Scott Haslem said the progress in job opportunities would bring about higher inflation in the final months of 2007. He believed the Reserve Bank would increase interest rates in February 2008 to prevent inflation going above-the RBA's 3 per cent target range.

Nevertheless Mr Arnold said the increase in labour supply, coming from migration, would not make earnings difficulties.